Clove is a Controller built to fight close to the action instead of directing every round from the back line. Their four-ability kit combines a conventional smoke with a damaging debuff, a combat reward that grants temporary survivability, and an ultimate that can bring Clove back after death. Ruse can still provide smoke support after Clove dies, but its post-death range, charges and duration have been restricted by later patches. Meddle and Pick-Me-Up reward taking fights, while Not Dead Yet gives Clove a brief chance to earn a real resurrection. The practical details below reflect Riot’s official agent information and patch notes through Patch 12.05 in March 2026; check the newest patch notes and your in-client tooltips before relying on any exact live value.
What are Clove’s abilities?
Clove has one ability for vision denial, one for area control, one for winning an individual fight, and one for returning after death. The kit is deliberately more active than the stereotypical Controller loadout: Riot describes Clove as an agent who takes calculated risks and fights near the action.
| Ability | What it does | Combat purpose | After Clove dies |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ruse (E) | Places vision-blocking clouds from a battlefield view. | Separates sightlines, supports an entry or retake, and can provide post-death utility. | Usable in a restricted area around Clove’s death location, with later limits to charges and duration. |
| Meddle (Q) | Throws a fragment that erupts after a delay and temporarily decays targets in its area. | Forces opponents out of staging space or weakens them before a fight. | The documented kit description does not present Meddle as a dead-state tool. |
| Pick-Me-Up (C) | After Clove damages or kills an enemy, absorbs that enemy’s life force for haste and temporary health. | Rewards a successful duel, trade or assist and helps Clove continue fighting. | Its activation condition is tied to damaging or killing an enemy while alive; no separate post-death use is described in Riot’s overview. |
| Not Dead Yet (X) | Activates after death and gives Clove a chance to resurrect. | Creates a high-risk re-entry that can change a round’s numbers. | Clove must secure a kill or damaging assist before the revival window ends to remain alive. |
How does Ruse work?
Ruse is Clove’s smoke. Clove equips a tactical battlefield view, selects locations for vision-blocking clouds, and confirms the placements. It fills the Controller role by cutting off sightlines, but its most unusual feature is that Clove can cast it after dying.
Using Ruse while alive
When alive, treat Ruse as a flexible sightline tool rather than a reason to abandon the fight. Smoke an angle that blocks an Operator line, hides a teammate crossing, or divides defenders so your team can isolate one side of a site. Because the ability is selected from a top-down battlefield view, Clove can make placements without standing directly at the location where the smoke will appear.
- Open the Ruse placement view.
- Identify the sightline or choke point your team needs to deny.
- Place the cloud where it blocks the opponent’s information or crossfire.
- Confirm the placement, then use the temporary visual advantage to fight, plant or reposition.
What changes when Clove dies?
Riot’s developer explanation says the post-death version is deliberately constrained: Ruse’s range is restricted near the place where Clove died. Your death location therefore affects the utility your team can receive. Dying in a useful area can leave a practical smoke option; dying far from the next fight can make the remaining cast much less relevant.
Post-death Ruse is not identical to an ordinary cast. Patch 11.10 limited Clove to one Ruse charge while dead, and Patch 12.05 reduced the duration of a smoke cast while dead from 14 seconds to 6 seconds. Those are dead-cast changes, not a claim that every normal Ruse smoke lasts six seconds. Use the current client tooltip for the live ordinary duration.
How should a team use a dead Clove smoke?
Think of it as a short, localized intervention: obscure the defender holding the next doorway, cover a teammate’s defuse attempt, or remove one crossfire while a surviving player swings. Call out the death location and the intended smoke before Clove dies whenever possible; teammates then know whether the restricted range can reach the area they plan to contest.
What does Meddle do?
Meddle is a throwable fragment that erupts after a delay and temporarily decays enemies caught inside. The decay reduces the target’s effective health for the duration, making a grouped opponent easier to challenge, but the ability is strongest when it helps Clove’s team take space rather than when it is thrown blindly for chip damage.
Its intended use is staging space
Riot designer Dan “penguin” Hardison explained that Meddle is intended for fighting over staging space, not for elaborate lineups or cross-map post-plant routines. The delayed eruption gives opponents a moment to move, so the useful question is where they must stand next: behind a box before an execute, in a close corner during a retake, or at a choke point while preparing a swing.
Patch 10.04 changed Meddle’s detonation behavior to occur after ground contact followed by a 0.75-second timer. That makes the landing point and the opponent’s immediate movement especially important. Patch 12.05 reduced the area from 6 meters to 4 meters, so current throws need tighter placement than launch-era guides may suggest.
Practical Meddle sequence
- Identify a position opponents must occupy to hold, retake or escape.
- Throw the fragment so it lands where that movement is likely to occur.
- Use the delay to coordinate a swing, push or denial rather than waiting passively.
- Prioritize targets that are already committed to the space; a decayed enemy is most vulnerable when leaving is difficult.
Meddle does not replace a smoke. It changes the danger of occupying an area, while Ruse removes vision. Combining both can let Clove’s team enter a space with fewer readable defensive options.
How does Pick-Me-Up work?
Pick-Me-Up becomes available after Clove damages or kills an enemy. Clove absorbs that enemy’s life force and receives haste plus temporary health. It is therefore a reward for participation in a fight, not a pre-round self-buff that can be activated on demand.
When to activate it
Use Pick-Me-Up when the extra movement and temporary health help you convert the first duel into a second action: swinging the trader, clearing the next angle, chasing a weakened defender or surviving long enough to finish a plant. The ability can also reward a damaging assist, so Clove does not need to land the final shot personally to gain value from team damage.
Riot’s design explanation is explicit about the intended pressure: if Clove does not fight someone within the relevant window, the ability provides nothing. That makes the ability a signal to play near teammates and contested space, while still requiring judgment about whether the next fight is winnable.
Why launch-era numbers are unreliable
Pick-Me-Up has been tuned several times. Patch 8.11 increased its cost from 100 to 200 credits and reduced its duration from 10 to 8 seconds. Patch 10.04 increased the health-buff duration from 8 to 10 seconds while reducing the movement duration from 8 to 3 seconds. Patch 11.10 reduced the overheal from 100 health to 50 health. These figures belong to specific patch changes, not a permanent promise about every current mode or client build, so verify the live tooltip before making a numeric loadout guide.
How does Not Dead Yet work?
Not Dead Yet is Clove’s ultimate. After Clove dies, the ultimate can be activated to begin a resurrection attempt. Clove must then obtain a kill or a damaging assist before the revival window expires; otherwise the attempt does not leave Clove alive.
The ten-second decision window
Patch 9.10 changed the kill-or-damaging-assist window from 12 seconds to 10 seconds. That is long enough to re-enter a nearby fight but short enough that wandering away from the contested area usually wastes the opportunity. Activate with a realistic target, a reachable route and enough information to know where enemies are likely to be.
Why activating can still be correct without a guaranteed kill
Riot frames Not Dead Yet as a situational decision rather than an automatic second life. A revival attempt can be worthwhile if re-entering the round gives your team a chance to win an important post-plant or retake, even when Clove may not personally secure the required follow-up. Conversely, activating with no reachable enemy can simply delay the inevitable and remove the option from a later round.
Patch 8.11 increased the ultimate cost from seven to eight points. Because the cost and the follow-up requirement both matter, track enemy locations, teammate pressure and the remaining round objective before committing.
How does Clove’s kit support an aggressive Controller playstyle?
Clove’s abilities form a loop: Ruse creates a safe or ambiguous sightline, Meddle makes a contested pocket more dangerous, Pick-Me-Up rewards the first successful interaction, and Not Dead Yet gives Clove another chance to influence the round after an overextension. This is Riot’s design intent, not proof that an aggressive play is always optimal.
Opening a site
Use Ruse to remove the most important defender’s sightline, then throw Meddle into the position where defenders are likely to stage their swing. Clove can follow the entry rather than staying behind the rest of the team. If Clove damages an enemy, Pick-Me-Up can support the next clear; if Clove dies, the team may still receive a localized smoke and Clove may have an ultimate re-entry.
Retaking a site
Retakes are where the kit’s timing matters most. A smoke can split a post-plant crossfire, Meddle can punish a defender holding a close plant position, and Pick-Me-Up can turn a trade into enough mobility and temporary health for the next duel. Not Dead Yet is strongest when teammates are close enough to create a target during the revival window.
What Clove cannot replace
Clove’s utility does not automatically provide the long-range, lineup-oriented control that some other Controllers offer. Meddle’s designer specifically rejected cross-map post-plant use as its purpose, and dead-state Ruse is constrained by both range and later tuning. Teams should therefore plan around Clove’s proximity to the action instead of assuming every problem can be solved from safety.
Which patch changes make older Clove guides stale?
Launch guides often combine values that were never live at the same time. The following timeline separates the major documented changes and keeps each number attached to its Riot patch context.
| Patch and date | Documented change | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| 8.11, June 2024 | Pick-Me-Up cost rose from 100 to 200 credits; duration fell from 10 to 8 seconds. Not Dead Yet cost rose from 7 to 8 ultimate points. | Early economy and ultimate-frequency advice can overstate how often Clove can access these tools. |
| 9.10, November 2024 | Not Dead Yet’s kill-or-damaging-assist window changed from 12 to 10 seconds. | Old revival guides allow two seconds that no longer exist under this change. |
| 10.04, March 2025 | Meddle changed to detonate after ground contact and a 0.75-second timer. Ruse cooldown rose from 30 to 40 seconds. Pick-Me-Up health-buff duration rose from 8 to 10 seconds, while movement duration fell from 8 to 3 seconds. | Throw timing, smoke planning and the order of Pick-Me-Up’s benefits all changed. |
| 11.10, October 2025 | While Clove is dead, Ruse is limited to one charge. Pick-Me-Up overheal fell from 100 health to 50 health. | Dead-state utility and the survivability payoff are lower than in many launch explanations. |
| 12.05, March 2026 | Dead-cast Ruse smoke duration fell from 14 seconds to 6 seconds. Meddle’s area fell from 6 meters to 4 meters. | Post-death smoke must be timed tightly, and Meddle throws require more precise placement. |
The official material summarized here does not establish later changes after Patch 12.05. For tournament, ranked or guide-writing purposes, treat the newest Riot patch notes and the current in-client ability tooltips as the authority for any value that may have changed.
How should you practice Clove’s abilities?
Practice the kit as a sequence of decisions rather than four isolated buttons.
- Ruse: In a custom game, rehearse which sightlines can be denied from common entry positions, then repeat the exercise from likely death locations.
- Meddle: Throw at corners and choke points where an opponent must pause, and learn how the ground-contact timer changes your swing timing.
- Pick-Me-Up: After a first duel, identify the next angle you can safely contest instead of activating automatically in the open.
- Not Dead Yet: Before activating, locate at least one plausible enemy target and identify the route teammates can use to help you reach it.
These drills reflect the abilities’ documented mechanics and intended risk-reward pattern. They do not turn every aggressive play into a good one; Clove still needs timing, information and team support.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why do Clove ability guides disagree about Pick-Me-Up’s numbers?
Many guides preserve launch or early-patch values while later Riot notes changed the cost, durations and overheal. Read the patch version beside any number, then confirm the tooltip in your current client before copying it into a build or strategy guide.
What should I call out when Clove dies?
Tell teammates your death location and the area you want smoked before or immediately after the death animation. That information lets them judge whether the restricted post-death range can cover a defuse, plant path or retake swing.
What is the safest way to practice Not Dead Yet?
Use a custom round to rehearse activating only when an enemy is reachable and a teammate can create pressure. Practice moving directly toward a target during the revival window instead of searching the entire map for a fight.
Why can Meddle feel less reliable on old videos?
Its detonation behavior and area were changed after launch, so throws shown in older footage may assume a larger affected zone or a different timing model. Current placement should be learned from the live patch rather than copied frame-for-frame from launch guides.